“Is she already out of the game” shouted one of the players almost in disbelief when the first working class player had gone bankrupt twenty minutes into the game.

For most the youth (between 16-19) playing the first Metropoly game at City Desired, monopoly was a foreign game. They had never played it before, yet the rules were simple enough: buy as much as you can and try to get other players out of the game by making them bankrupt.

Unlike traditional Monopoly, Mother Land Metropoly rules impact players differently depending on which ‘class’ they are allocated: working class, middle class and elite. Each category receives a different starting amount of money and is affected by ‘chance cards’ in very different ways. For instance, when a chance card was drawn which said ‘taxi strike’, the working class player lost a day’s work, whereas the elite class player was late by a few minutes to work.

With the facilitation of Zwelakhe Khuse from Magnet Theatre, the 60 minutes of Mother City Metropoly were a fun-filled session. The game and the following debrief with the players highlighted some interesting lessons about Cape Town – in particular, how a group of young people perceive wealth, property, fairness, and relevant dynamics in the city.

As one of the participants pointed out, if ‘government’ was present when the working class player was bankrupt, she wouldn’t have gone out. It’s just a game but perhaps it can also be a conversation starter about “real life” in Cape Town.

Metropoly will be played again on Wednesday 12 November at 10:00. Join us!